Film Review: Stalker (1979)

I’ve been meaning to tackle this film for a while, but as I found out from watching Solaris, you really need to be attentive when watching Tarkovsky. Thus, I’ve been putting this one off for a while until I felt like I could really absorb it. Sadly, I still don’t think I was as awake as I could have been, but I felt that with the changing of the seasons from cool Autumn to cold Winter, a film of his would be very appropriate to cover. Thankfully, I was able to grasp it rather well, in spite of my tiredness, and I have to say that I came away from this film feeling cold in a different way. It’s not to say I felt nothing, quite the opposite. Stalker is a dour film, creating a dreary world where even its fantastical section still carries an undercurrent of depression. It’s not without hope, and the turmoil that’s caused between the hope and the despair is a big part of its idea, but don’t go into this expecting something really upbeat. I’ll get more into it later, but first, here’s the story.

Stalker takes place in a dystopian territory, adjacent to a region called the “Zone,” which is a stretch of land and structures wherein strange and mind-bending things can occur (as well as a supposed alien connection, though this is not elaborated upon beyond there being traces of them left in the Zone). We follow a man known only as the “Stalker,” who acts as a guide for people wanting to traverse the Zone. Apparently, there’s a supposed location in the Zone called the “Room,” which grants those that walk in their innermost desires. This go around, the Stalker is tasked with leading two men, who go by the “Writer” and the “Professor” respectively. He tries to sneak out of the house at first, not wanting his wife to know he’s doing this again, but she wakes up and figures it out pretty quickly. Nothing she says deters him from setting out, so she’s left to look after their daughter and curse him saddeningly. After he meets up with the two clients at the bar, they set off to the Zone. They have to evade several checkpoints and security outposts, since the Zone is heavily guarded, but they manage to get through without injury. The Stalker makes it clear that they have to follow his instructions as they move through the Zone, as it’s a very tricky place and is often not what it seems. From here, the film follows their journey and all the twists, turns, and odd happenings they come across: The Professor turning back in a series of tunnels to get his rucksack and nearly getting lost forever; traversing a long room of sand with eagles that swoop down on the men; a supposed meat grinder that one of them will have to risk going into so that they can continue on; etc. Along the way, they talk about another stalker known as “Porcupine,” and his ill-fated trip in the Zone that ended in his brother’s death and, shortly after, his own suicide (which is odd, because he did so after the Room gave him a huge amount of money). They also talk about their reasons for journeying to the Room: The Writer doesn’t want to lose his drive to create, the Professor wants to study the Zone itself, and the Stalker just wants to help other people achieve their wants and dreams. Eventually, they reach the building that houses the Room, where it’s revealed that the Professor was actually planning to blow up the Room the whole time, so as to keep it from falling into the wrong hands. This results in a huge fight between the three party members, and the Writer finally pieces together what the Room actually is, and we learn more about why the Stalker does what he does. I don’t want to give too much away, so I’ll try to be careful when I talk about the themes and ideas in this film. Well, wish me luck, because here are my thoughts.

Like I said before, this is a very gloomy film, set in a bleak world with characters who want something to hold on to, yet are also scared that it isn’t real, as well as distrustful of their own inner selves. The Stalker wants to keep faith in people alive, because there’s no transcendental ideas to believe in in a world that beats you down with oppression and dismisses you with rationality. However, as the Writer eventually theorizes, he might also like the feeling and status of being Godlike himself, someone that can show others “the way” towards their hopes and dreams. He’s not entirely truthful with his clients, as the Room doesn’t exactly do what most people think it does, and though I can’t spoil what that is, let’s just say it’s a classic old sci-fi twist. The Stalker is basically leading people to a possible demise every time he takes them there, but he doesn’t want the Professor to destroy the Room either, because he feels that it’s the last thing that anyone in the world can believe in, even if it’s a lie. Honestly, this film really captures a feeling similar to a struggle with depression: a person with depression might try to hold on to anything that makes them feel positive or gives them a reason to keep on, but the depression inside of them is always there, pulling at them and just waiting for the right moment to punch them back down to “reality,” or more so the reality that the person thinks is true (i.e. a very negative and self-deprecating one). You can feel this underlying aspect all throughout the film, as the Stalker tries his best to keep the group together and lead them through the Zone, but you can tell that he’s hiding things from the other two, and that there’s distrust and resentment growing in them because of it. This starts to show as we get closer to the Room, especially when we hit the “meat grinder” bit. The Stalker claims that one must go in first, risking almost certain death, so that the other two might make it through. They supposedly decide this by drawing straws, but when the Writer is chosen, he starts lambasting the Stalker for knowing ahead of time that they were eventually going to have to do this and not telling them. He even figures out that he had “been chosen” long before they’d even gotten to the location at all. As benevolent as the Stalker likes to make himself appear to be, he’s clearly not above “leaving out the truth” in order to keep people on the path he lays out. It’s also not hard to believe that the Stalker would do all this, risking his life to get people to and through the Zone as well as leaving out details that might deter them from keeping on, as a method of escape for himself. The Zone, while not the most vibrant or safest place in the world, is still way more colorful and fantastical than the dusty, foggy, sepia-toned regime that he has to live in. In the same way that the Room is something for people to seek escape in with their wishes, so too is the Zone itself something for the Stalker to escape into to get away from the awful existence he has to live in. I suppose a mind-bending deathtrap is better than no escape at all, but I do have to wonder if there’s some sort of commentary on Russia in here. By that I mean that Russia has been through so many horrid rulings and dictatorships, a place like the Zone might be the best alternative they could hope for, one that’s no paradise, but is at least better than what they have. Also, I have to note that when I first saw the Zone and how it was blockaded from civilian entry by the government, I immediately thought that it might be some sort of radiation sector. It doesn’t seem like that was the intention, as the film implies alien activity as the reason for its oddities, but it definitely feels grimmer and semi-prophetic when you think about the Chernobyl disaster that would happen later. Ultimately, this film is mostly a statement on fighting for belief and emotion in a cynical world that wants to beat it out of you. Much like Solaris, it does a very good job of gradually taking you through its experience and slowly developing its ideas and vibes within you. Some might prefer a more tight and concise presentation and feel that they could have said the same things in less time, which I can understand. However, if you let the film take you on the journey it wants to take you on, you’ll find that its slow construction process will hit very hard when it finally completes the metaphorical building. I should probably wrap things up here, so we’ll move on to my conclusion.

So, as you can tell, I thought the film did a great job of delivering on its ideas and its cinematic journey. I was glad to cover another Tarkovsky on here, and that I was, while tired, still cognizant enough to absorb the film. I’m not sure if I’ll cover a Christmas film this year, or if I’ll just try to do a general winter film, but either way, I hope you look forward to the next entry, and in the meantime, go on an adventure with Stalker. It’s not a wholly uplifting film, but it’s certainly a meaningful one (and I think you’ll still find some hope in the ending, but I don’t want to say too much).